This invention relates in general to weight sorting systems for poultry or the like and in particular to improvements in equipment and apparatus for the sorting of poultry suspended by elongated carriers from an overhead conveyor.
Poultry weight sorting systems such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,132,373 include a fixed horizontal track along which elongated carriers are supported by rollers for travel through a weighing or monitoring station, the carriers being otherwise suspended directly from an overhead conveyor during travel to and from the weighing station. A weighing platform positioned within a gap formed in the fixed track at the monitoring station is connected to a weighing scale for measuring poultry suspended from the carrier as it loads the platform during travel across the gap. Loads above a preset value are accordingly detected by the weighing scale to produce a signal which is operative in some sorting systems to effect release of the load from the carrier by operation of an ejection mechanism engaging a latch release arm projecting from the carrier. According to the aforementioned patent, the ejection mechanism includes a power operated plunger that is projected into the path of the latch release arm as the carrier is conveyed along the fixed track. According to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,291,303 and 3,680,693, two weighing platforms are provided at which signals are produced to control operation of a single ejection mechanism for releasing loads between upper and lower weight limits respectively established at the two weighing platforms. According to U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,078, a plurality of weighing stations are provided at which loads within different weight ranges are released, and wherein signals produced at each station are counted to equalize the distribution of poultry dropped or released at each of the weighing stations. In all of the systems disclosed in the foregoing prior patents, poultry is either released from or continues to travel with its carrier while supported on the fixed track to which it is elevated as the carrier approaches the weighing station and each carrier, whether unloaded or not, travels along the same path through each weighing station. Further, operation of the system, regardless of the program to which it is limited, is controlled by signals produced in response to detection of loads above preset limits at each of the weighing stations, movement of the carriers past certain locations and operation of the ejection mechanisms.
It is an important object of the present invention to provide an improvement to the foregoing weight monitoring and sorting systems wherein operational programming and controls may be simplified as well as to provide equipment having greater flexibility with respect to its adaptation to different system installations and programs.
A further object is to provide a weight sorting system in which loads are released from the conveyor carriers by a passive type of ejector mechanism that does not involve powered operation.